From the perspective of humor, parody is the imitation of any behavior, event, speech, writing, etc. with the intention of producing amusement, or sometimes even derision. Parody may have aggression and certainly has play and laughter in it (see the section satire), but usually lacks judgment. Parody appears to be most successful when the subject of the parody, says Feinberg (1967:185), has ''sufficient individuality of style or content to be distinguished.'' ''That individuality,'' he further explains, ''may consist of significant originality or mere eccentricity.'' Since parody depends on first imitation and then exaggerating certain features of the style, behavior, affectation, etc. that is being imitated, parody can be considered a form of caricature--except it operates in either the literary or theatrical (including film and television) mode. (Three common examples of media that indulge in parodies in the U.S. are the magazines National Lampoon and Mad, and the television program on NBC, Saturday Night Live.)
The purpose of the parody may include criticism, or it may simply be there to elicit laughter. A common example of harmless parody is when a stand-up comic imitates a U.S. president--and the humor will be found not so much in what the comic says while pretending to be the president, but how well he carries off the parody. Another example of parody, though in reality it is not parody because it is done by animal, is when an ape imitates human visitors at a zoo, and in the process provoking much amusement among the humans. Why parody--especially the innocent harmless kind--generates humor, is another one of those mysteries of humor that remains to be explained. Needless to say, the success of a parody is dependent not only on the person doing the parody but also on the audience viewing the parody. For, unless the audience has prior knowledge of the subject of the parody then the failure of the parody is almost assured. When parody is imbued with the elements of aggression and judgment, then it of course becomes transformed into satire. Three good examples from literature that illustrate this point: Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, George Orwell's Animal Farm, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. While in all three literary works parody abounds, the authors' infusion of their work with the elements of aggression and judgment render the work satirical. (See also ironical allegory, satire.)